How to write a vote

Background

Please refer to the bylaws for the up to date rules on votes. The bylaws are guaranteed to be accurate and this page is not.

The bylaws will tell you the deadlines for when votes need to be announced to the board of directors and to the membership.

How to create a page to represent your vote
- Type the name of the your vote into the search box. This will become the name of your page.
- There is text that says "Create the page XX on this wiki" (or something to that affect). Click on the link within the text.
Page content
- The best thing to do is to copy the source of the Vote Template page into your new page. Click Edit at the top of the template page, copy all of the source, and then paste it into the editor on your new vote.
- Generally, there are four parts to vote text.
  - Sponsor - The person who is proposing the vote
  - Background - All explanatory text and language that will not be voted on
  - Language - The actual voted upon text
  - History - This is going to contain the dates for a vote, like when it was proposed
- Category
  - You will need to make sure that the Votes category is on the page. We also use the category: "CurrentYear Votes". Assuming it is 2017, that means that the page should be in the category "2017 Votes".
  - In the visual editor, find the icon that is 3 lines towards the right. Click page settings. Click on the categories section. Add the "Votes" category.
  - In the source editor, type [[Category:2020 Votes]] on its own line.
Votes page
- You now need to add it to the votes page. Do this by going to the page and finding the current year. Add your vote to the Upcoming Votes table.
- The description needs to be a link to the vote page you just created.

As determined by the bylaws, the language must stop changing some number of days before it is to be voted on (please see the bylaws for the exact number). We would recommend giving the membership a full week of discussion for feedback before the language stops changing.
- As an example, if the language deadline is 5 days, we would recommend that you announce it at least 5 + 7 days before the vote date.
Generally, don't put much in the language. The background is not binding, and is best for most details.
- A good example is Compressed Air System Updates.